"The cult of the omnipotent state has millions of followers in the united States. Americans of today view their government in the same way as Christians view their God; they worship and adore the state and they render their lives and fortunes to it. Statists believe that their lives -- their very being -- are a privilege that the state has given to them. They believe that everything they do is -- and should be -- dependent on the consent of the government." ~ Jacob Hornberger

Inside the Gulag Rape in America’s Prisons

In 2007, Brittney Allen Young, a transgender woman, was incarcerated in the Powledge men’s prison unit in Palestine, TX. Her cellmate repeatedly overpowered and raped her. She complained to prison authorities, but they dismissed her complaints for lack of a corroborating witness to the incidents.
Young was eventually transferred to the Hughes Unit in Gatesville, TX, where another inmate, this one HIV-positive, also assaulted and raped her. She was eventually placed in protection detention where, as reported by the Dallas Voice Young is today “locked up 23 hours a day, unable to participate in the educational, vocational and religious programs her attackers still enjoy.”
The prison-industrial complex is estimated to cost $80 billion annually to maintain. It includes federal and state prisons (many run by private, for-profit corporations) as well as county and local jails, juvenile facilities and police lockups, halfway houses and probation programs. According to the Justice Department (DoJ) data, 2.2 million people were incarcerated in 2010. The U.S. operates the largest prison system in the world.